ATHLETIC BENEFITS AND OPPORTUNITIES In determining whether equal opportunities in athletics are available, the Title IX regulation specifies the following factors which must be considered accommodation of athletic interests and abilities (which is addressed separately in the section above); equipment and supplies; scheduling of games and practice time; travel and per diem allowances; opportunity for coaching and academic tutoring; assignment and compensation of coaches and tutors; locker rooms and other facilities; medical and training services; housing and dining services; and publicity. The Title IX regulation also permits OCR to consider other factors in determining whether there is equal opportunity. Accordingly, the Policy Interpretation added recruitment of student athletes and provision of support services, since these factors can affect the overall provision of equal opportunity to male and female athletes. The Policy Interpretation clarifies that institutions must provide equivalent treatment, services, and benefits regarding these factors. The overall equivalence standard allows institutions to achieve their own program goals within the framework of providing equal athletic opportunities. To determine equivalency for men's and women's athletic programs, each of the factors is assessed by comparing the following: availability; quality; kind of benefits; kind of opportunities; and kind of treatment. Under this equivalency standard, identical benefits, opportunities, or treatment are not required. For example, locker facilities for a women's team do not have to be the same as for a men's team, as long as the effect of any differences in the overall athletic program are negligible. If a comparison of program components indicates that benefits, opportunities, or treatment are not equivalent in quality, availability, or kind, the institution may still be in compliance with the law if the differences are shown to be the result of nondiscriminatory factors. Generally, these differences will be the result of unique aspects of particular sports or athletic activities, such as the nature/replacement of equipment and maintenance of facilities required for competition. Some disparities may be related to special circumstances of a temporary nature. For example, large disparities in recruitment activity for any particular year may be the result of annual fluctuations in team needs for first-year athletes. Difficulty in compliance will exist only if disparities are of a substantial and unjustified nature in a school's overall athletic program; or if disparities in individual program areas are substantial enough in and of themselves to deny equality of athletic opportunity. This equivalency approach allows institutions great flexibility in conducting their athletic programs and maintaining compliance without compromising the diversity of athletic programs among institutions. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE To the extent that a college or university provided athletic scholarships, it is required to provide reasonable opportunities for such awards to members of each sex in proportion to the participation rate of each sex in intercollegiate athletics. This does not require the same number of scholarships for men and women or individual scholarships of equal value. However, the total amount of assistance awarded to men and women must be substantially proportionate to their participation rates in athletic programs. In other words, if 60 percent of an institution's intercollegiate athletes are male, the total amount of aid going to male athletes should be approximately 60 percent of the financial aid dollars the institution awards. Disparities in awarding financial assistance may be justified by legitimate, nondiscriminatory (sex-neutral) factors. For example, at some institutions the higher costs of tuition for out-of-state residents may cause an uneven distribution between scholarship aid to men's and women's programs. These differences are nondiscriminatory if they are not the result of limitations on the availability of out of-state scholarships to either men or women. Differences also may be explained by professional decisions college and university officials make about program development. An institution beginning a new program, for example, may spread scholarships over a full generation (four years) of student athletes, thereby, awarding fewer scholarships during the first few years than would be necessary to create proportionality between male and female athletes. ACHIEVING EQUAL OPPORTUNITY Before the enactment of Title IX, most colleges and universities traditionally emphasized sports for male students, and the benefits and educational opportunities in athletic programs generally were limited for women. Title IX has helped focus attention on meeting the needs of women interested in athletics and helped education officials to recognize their responsibilities regarding the provision of equal athletic opportunity. The result has been increased involvement of girls and women in sports at all levels. OCR supports the efforts of education officials to comply with the requirements of Title IX by offering a program of technical assistance to institutions receiving Federal funds as well as to beneficiaries of those funds. OCR's technical assistance program is designed to provide education officials with the skills and knowledge necessary to apply the laws to their own circumstances and thereby facilitate voluntary compliance. OCR's principle enforcement activity is the investigation and resolution of discrimination complaints.

Title IX is providing more opportunities for women. When Title IX was signed in 1972, women earned just 7 percent of all law degrees. By 1997, that number had risen to 44 percent. As Title IX allowed more women to afford to attend university through academic and athletic scholarships, 41 percent of women earned medical degrees, whereas before in 1972, women only earned 9 percent of all medical degrees.